Information Technology for the Decade of Synthesis: LTER Partners and Projects - Leveraging Resources and Metadata to Meet a Common Goal

Organizers: onathan Walsh (BES), Tony Fountain (SDSC), Ken Ramsey (JRN), Morgan Grove (USDA Forest Service), Charlie Schweik (UMass Amherstt), Peter Arzberger (SDSC), Barbara Benson (NTL), Dylan Keon (NACSE), Susan Stafford (U. of Minnesota)Key Participants: Judith Cushing, Dave Vieglais, J. Morgan Grove, Peter Arzeberger, Longjiang Ding, Tony Fountain, , Ken Ramsey, Jonathan Walsh

September 19, 2003

INTRODUCTION

One of the greatest challenges facing the LTER Network is how to foster cross-site and cross-disciplinary synthesis. This workshop focused on existing and potential partnerships being developed between the LTER Network and other organizations to help researchers in performing cross-site synthesis. These partnerships help members distribute and share resources and minimize duplicated efforts for solutions to common problems encountered. This workshop highlighted some of the current partnerships and projects as well as potential partnerships that could be created in the future to support synthesis.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 18 individuals attended the conference.

PRESENTATIONS

The workshop consisted of 5 presentations.  The presentations all regarded systems for cross-site collaboration and synthesis of information.  

-                                      The Open Research System, presented by Walsh for Grove collects metadata online and facilitates searches based on geography, keyword, or the Human Ecosystem Framework (adapted from

-                                      The Canopy Databank Project, presented by Cushing was developed in part from a call from researchers that management, use, and sharing of data are the biggest barriers to their research. This system, actually a method of thinking more than a suite of programs, makes designing databases easier for ‘end users’ through the use of templates.

-                                      The Species Analyst project presented by Vieglais, provides standards, software and infrastructure for constructing a global virtual database of the worlds natural history museum collections, and currently provides free and open access to over 120 databases.

-                                      The Pacific Rim Application and Grid Middleware Assembly (PRAGMA) presented by Arzeberger, was initiated in 2002 involving more than a dozen institutions along the Pacific Rim, with a dual mission to build sustainable collaborations and to advance the use of grid technologies via applications.  Arzeberger demonstrated a linkage between Taiwan and the states using  climate data.

-                                      The Web Services for Computational Ecology presentation by Ding elucidated the use of web services technology, especially with regard to the International Information Grid for Ecology and the Environment (I2G) project which demonstrates a web services prototype for federating LTER Network climate data collections and PRAGMA international partner weather data collections.

Peter Arzberger, parzberg@SDSC.EDU 

Barbara Benson, bjbenson@facstaff.wisc.edu 

Tony Fountain, fountain@SDSC.EDU 

Morgan Grove, mgrove@fs.fed.us 

Dylan Keon, keon@nacse.org 

Ken Ramsey, keramsey@nmsu.edu 

Charlie Schweik, cschweik@pubpol.umass.edu 

Susan Stafford, stafford@umn.edu 

Jonathan Walsh, WalshJ@EcoStudies.org